And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
The king's letters have gone out. Wherever they arrive, a whole people falls into mourning, fasting and sackcloth. This verse raises two hard questions — why did the Jews see no way out, and where was God in a book that never once names Him?
What the decree threatened
The mourning fits the threat. One writer points to the man behind the letters.
An Outline of Sound WordsIn Haman we see a man set on destroying the people of God completely. He had put up a gallows, fifty cubits high, to get rid of the man he hated most — the man God had decreed would be the saviour of His people. He had also sent out a decree to wipe out the nation of Israel... Haman had indeed brought the fear of death on all God's people.
Why no escape seemed possible
Persian law could not be undone, and that is what made the grief so total.
William KellyTheir doom was sealed. So it appeared. All the more, because the Persian empire always held to one rule: a law once passed was never taken back — "according to the law of the Medes and Persians that alters not." Nothing, it seemed, could have saved the people. The master of 127 provinces had given his royal word. He signed it with his seal and sent it out by messengers across the whole empire. The day was fixed; the people named.
Sackcloth and ashes
Many of the mourners lay in ashes. Across the Bible, ashes carry a settled meaning.
Morrish Bible DictionaryAshes, mostly from burnt wood, were a sign of sorrow or mourning. People put them on the head, 2 Samuel 13:19, or on the body with sackcloth, Esther 4:1; Jeremiah 6:26. They also spread them on a couch to lie on, Esther 4:3; Jonah 3:6. To eat ashes expresses great sorrow, Psalm 102:9. To be reduced to ashes is a picture of complete destruction.
The sackcloth had a meaning of its own.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinPutting on sackcloth and ashes was the outward expression of the most intense grief. The sackcloth was a coarse hair-cloth, black in colour.
Did they pray?
The verse names mourning, fasting, weeping and lamenting. Prayer is not among them. Commentators differ on what to make of that silence. One reads it as deliberate:
Leslie M. GrantAt the same time, everywhere Haman's decree had gone, the Jews fasted with weeping and wailing, many dressed in sackcloth. Again, the text says nothing about whether they prayed to God (v. 3). No doubt God leaves this unclear on purpose, because of Israel's unfaithfulness to Him.
Another is sure prayer was there:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThroughout the provinces the proclamation became known. As the condemned people read it, there was the same weeping and wailing with fasting. Prayer was without doubt joined to this grief as well.
Why God's name never appears
The silence is not accidental. It has to do with where these Jews had chosen to live.
Leslie M. GrantMany Jews chose to remain in Persia. If they had faith, it was so weak that it gave them no energy to get back to God's appointed place for them. The book of Esther then shows how God dealt with these Jews despite their lack of faith. But people have often noticed that God's name is never mentioned in the book. Why not? Because Israel had not submitted to God's authority. Their condition was such that God did not openly own them as His people.
Two kinds of weeping
Ezra 3 shows another group of Jews weeping. The difference is not the tears but what caused them.
The Christian's FriendIn Esther 4:3 there is great mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing. But how different it is from the weeping of the old men in Ezra 3... The old men weep at the dishonour done to God, at the ruin of His house. The others weep at their own condition and danger. Notice again that these are really the people of God. In their deep trouble they turn to Him, and they fast before Him.
A shadow of what is still to come
One writer sees this scene, and Esther's own anguish, as a faint picture of a far greater trouble ahead.
H. L. RossierEsther herself is in great anguish. Do we not see here a faint early picture "of the great tribulation" still to come...? But how can we speak of help, when there is none, and when every way to a rightly angered God is blocked? The head of the nations does not care about evil. He hands the people over to their fierce, heartless, ruthless enemy. Who is left for them to run to?
And yet the same writer sees what that pressure produced:
H. L. RossierTribulation gives birth to perfect communion in the hearts of these believers. It also brings out every feeling of devotion and self-denial that God can approve and acknowledge... faith — which has nothing to rely on but grace, a grace they are not yet sure of, and do not feel worthy of.
Summary
- Hidden people. These Jews had stayed in Persia when the way home was open — faith too weak to move them to God's appointed place.
- Hidden God. Because He could not publicly own them as His people, His name never appears in the book — He works, but unnamed.
- Hidden escape. A Persian law once passed was never revoked. The day was fixed and the people named, and no human power could undo it.
- Hidden prayer. The verse names mourning, fasting, weeping and lamenting. It says nothing about prayer, and commentators differ over why.
- Hidden work. With no way out, faith leans on nothing but grace — and one writer sees here a shadow of the great tribulation still ahead.